Friday, February 12, 2010

The Kitchen of Love - Nana was married for 69 years because of these cookies


To coincide with Valentine's Day, Chris of Mele Cotte is once again hosting The Kitchen of Love, where we are asked to make something delicious, for any part of a meal, that includes at least one food/ingredient considered an aphrodisiac.


The aphrodisiac food that I have chosen is almonds, in the form of freshly ground almond meal and contained in these biscuits:




You can find out more about the aphrodisiac qualities of almonds here.


These biscuits have a rather long name - Nana was Married for 69 Years Because of These Cookies. The recipe comes from
Meals Men Love by Lana Vidler, a Sydneysider who came to the conclusion that guys just want simple, home-cooked meals rather than overly fancy creations. The book is partly tongue in cheek, with saucily named recipes, and partly deadly serious. Each recipe has allegedly been chosen by and tested on guys.


Living up to one of the book's claims, these biscuits are quick and easy to make, and would be an ideal after dinner with coffee treat for that romantic evening. Tempted? To make these biscuits, you will need:



3/4 cup plain flour

1/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup almond meal
3 tablespoons + 1/4 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
2 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (optional)


Sift the flours and 3 tablespoons of icing sugar together into a bowl. then stir in the almond meal. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour the melted butter and egg yolks into the well. Stir the ingredients together to form a dough, then knead it lightly. Cover the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate it for ~ 15 minutes.



In the meantime, preheat your oven to 140 degrees Celsius and spray a cookie tray with baking spray.



Remove the dough from the fridge, and shape it into 12 small crescent shapes, approximately 2cm thick. Bake the biscuits in the oven for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden.



Remove the biscuits from the oven and, while they are still warm, roll them in the combined remaining icing sugar and sugar. Cool (before things hot up).



Check out the roundup of The Kitchen of Love in a few days.

11 comments:

Ivy said...

These cookies sound delicious. They are almost like kourabiedes we make during Christmas.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I had no idea almonds were aphrodisiacs! :o I love these cookies though, even if just for the taste! :)

Nutmeg Nanny said...

Yummy cookies! What a cute story too :)

Iron Chef Shellie said...

What a cute name! I love almond anything!

Unknown said...

Best $19.95 cookbook spend ever! She's got some free recipes at http://www.mealsmenlove.com.au/index.php?main_page=page&id=12 too.

Chocolate Mousse to the Max. Love it!

The Blonde Duck said...

You don't argue with Nana's cookies.

Chris said...

What a fun book! And, a fun name! Thanks for participating. Round up out tomorrow. ;)

Anonymous said...

I love cookies with ground almonds, so these sound delicious and they look so easy! I didn't know that almonds are an aphrodisiac - I'll take almonds over oysters any day!

Brenda said...

Hehehehe I love the name of these cookies. What a cute and fun recipe

Mr. P said...

I'm wondering which of the recipes I make regularly is going to keep me married that long.

The Caked Crusader said...

I do love a good almond biccie - I made almond bics for Valentines....great minds think alike!